Jersey Shore businesses open doors at Sandy closes in

Stores open doors while Sandy closes in

Oct. 30, 2012

While its Norwood Avenue storefront was boarded up, a Deal business was open for business Monday. / ALEX BIESE/STAFF PHOTO

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The Red Store in Middletown was open on Monday, stocked with everything from potato chips to D-cell batteries. Owner Pat Verange said his decision was made easier because he lives above the store.

“Rain, shine, dark or light, we’re going to be here,” Verange said.

It was a rare sight as the typical Monday morning central New Jersey commute gave way to empty, wind-swept and rain-slick roads.

Commerce mostly ground to a halt. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq closed on Monday. The Port of New York/New Jersey closed its terminals. The region’s airports were closed. As were malls and banks.

And Tuesday wasn’t looking so hot either. The stock market will be closed again, and other companies are casting a wary eye as to whether they could restock their supplies.

Middletown-based Food Circus closed its Super Foodtown stores in Monmouth and Ocean counties. It asked employees to make their way to the stores for a 10 a.m. Tuesday reopening, Phil Scaduto, vice president, said.

“That will be an adjusted call based on what we are dealing with,” Scaduto said.

In Somerville, with the state court and Somerset County buildings closed, few shops on Main Street bothered to open Monday morning.

Among those that did open were Alfonso’s Family Trattoria, Path Liquors, Dunkin’ Donuts, and the Trifles and Treasures costume shop.

To ride the storm, Alfonos’s owner Anthony Ianniello said he brought in a skeleton crew of about 10 local employees – it usually takes 20 to run the Italian restaurant and bar.

“I spoke to the town fathers ... and the emergency personnel still need to get food, so I will try to stay open for them,” Ianniello, 56, said.

Alfonso’s closed early one day last year after Hurricane Irene.

“As long as we still got power,” he said. “People still need to eat. But if it gets unbearable, then we’ll leave.”

While its Norwood Avenue storefront was boarded up, Deal Food and Liquor in Deal was open for business Monday morning.

By 8:30 a.m. Monday, no customers had made their way to the store, so owner Robin Santanello of the Oakhurst section of Ocean Township spray-painted the news that the store was open on the boards protecting the windows.

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The store still had bottled water, milk and bread available Monday morning. But, with the store expected to close Monday afternoon, why open as Hurricane Sandy approached?

“Because we always open,” said Santanello, recalling being in business during the Boxing Day blizzard of 2010.

Businesses had to weigh what was essential and what was not essential. Meridian Health said it canceled many elective and nonurgent procedures both Monday and Tuesday at its five hospitals.

And they had to consider what would engender goodwill from their customers and goodwill from their employees. Wawa kept as many of its convenience stores open as it could, a spokeswoman said.

Some owners of small businesses stayed on the job.

By 6:30 a.m., a few locals had already ventured to Delicious Bagels on Sunset Avenue in Ocean Township to stock up on last-minute bagels and cream cheese, according to owner Wade Pontecorvo of Ocean Township.

Pontecorvo planned to close around noon. He said that in the pre-dawn hours he already had one employee call out of work due to the state of emergency. “I understand that,” Pontecorvo said. “I don't want to be here.”

The Dunkin Donuts at the Sea Girt Mall in Wall was open early Monday morning and will remain open through the storm, according to employees.

“They are saying they have never seen a storm like this in New Jersey,” Dunkin Donut employee Kalpesh Patel said of the store’s customers.

Patel said they are planning to stay open for 24 hours “if there is electricity.”

“I don’t know how long we’ll stay open,” said Gaffey, the only employee at the local shop at the corner of Arnold Avenue and Route 35 South. “I’ll try to stay open until at least noon.”

It was a similar refrain at The Red Store. The building at the corner of Navesink Avenue and Monmouth Avenue has been here for more than a century. And Verange's family has owned it since 1959.

The prospects for the day weren’t clear. The electric grid on a block across the street from him went out before 7 a.m. And Verange already was told by suppliers that their deliveries likely wouldn’t arrive on Tuesday.

But for now he wanted to make sure his neighbors knew he was open if they needed anything.